TheCologne Progressives was an art movement and were an informal group of artists based in theCologne andDüsseldorf area of Germany. They came together following theFirst World War and participated in the radicalworkers' movement.
The group was founded byGerd Arntz,Heinrich Hoerle andFranz Wilhelm Seiwert.[1] The group related their attitude to art to their political activism. AsWieland Schmied put it, they "sought to combine constructivism and objectivity, geometry and object, the general and the particular, avant-garde conviction and political engagement, and which perhaps approximated most to the forward looking ofNew Objectivity [...] ".[2] They originatedFigurative Constructivism.
Other artists and designers associated with this group include Wilhelm Kleinert,Marta Hegemann,Angelika Hoerle,Anton Räderscheidt, andGottfried Brockmann.[3] Many members had come from theStupid (art movement).[3]
This concept comes from their concern not merely to communicate social and political necessities, but also to ensure that their artworks could be turned toward the viewers sensible reality and become tenable as an argument. This is tied to their political commitment toproletarian culture in the specific context of theRhineland during the tumults of the 1920s.[4]
